CD Reviews

Gas

Nah Und Fern | Kompakt

By DEVIN KING | June 3, 2008

4.0 Stars

Kompakt label head Wolfgang Voigt re-releases the four discs of his Gas project — long hailed as some of the best albums in ambient techno — along with a double LP of extended material. This release — English translation “Near and Far” — brings to mind the two phrases that should be attached to any box set: out of print and fucking massive. The albums in their original forms sell for goofy ducats on-line, and it’s easy to see why — whereas most ambient techno smells like bong water and Taco Bell and sounds like some dude twisting a knob for 20 minutes, Voigt samples composers like Wagner, Berg, and Schoenberg and lets the string swells and horn lines pulsate slowly against one another. A buried bass thump keeps time. The music mimics waiting outside a club for a taxi; muted tracks from the dance floor mix with the sound systems of the passing cars and displace you from the city into Voigt’s regular visual reference — the forest. I have never more enjoyed listening to music on public transportation. Part of a genre too often made to be ignored, these Gas albums are intelligent, simple, and strange.

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